Thursday, October 31, 2019

Washburn Games 2019

Sunday September 29th was the Washburn Games I mentioned. This is a fundraiser for the Washburn center for children. We got word of this fun event last year through the Sanneh Foundation which is what we do summer soccer camps with. I'm really going to miss those camps, they were so good!!!  This year was, yup you guessed it... RAINING! Boy it was cold. When we arrived you could see the amazing skyline but by the time we left the sky was completely covered in clouds and the temperature had to have dropped ten degrees. 

The Washburn games are like a huge track and field day. There are tons of stations set up and volunteers running them, Tony Sanneh was running the soccer station himself! Sometimes they have other pro players at various stations, I'm not sure what they had this day. The kids started with the run. 

Cricket:


Soccer:


There's Tony. Mary made it all the way through the three soccer stations and got to keep her ball!


The girls were really into the art station and got their face painted and hair colored. 






There was baseball, kickball, hockey, football catching, kicking, and throwing. They also did beanbag toss, and lacrosse. We were all frozen and ready to go home by the end of it. Isaac's name was drawn again and we want a $50 gift card. Great event and turns out Cargill is a huge sponsor as well. Maybe when we return to Minneapolis Kyle can help with the behind the scenes of putting it on.


Kyle's Duathlon & Run Like a Girl

September 28th Kyle had his first bike run event. It was a Duathlon. Since the weather for swimming had passed this was the next best thing. He said it's his trial go before he dives into swim training for a tri. The duathlon consisted of a 3.5 mile run, then a 13 mile bike, and finishes with a 2.5 mile run. It was out in Lake Elmo which is quite a hike from our place (much like the White Bear Lake one was for me) Kyle left early and headed that way then I followed with the kids. We arrived just before start time. Here is Kyle getting ready for the run. It was somewhat chilly, not super cold and the sun helped it to be warm, but I had wished I grabbed my jacket like I intended but forgot. 

We waited at transition for him to get in from the first leg - the run.

Off he goes on the bike. I knew this would be a while so we went exploring while he was out riding.

There was a man made pond that was drained, the kids had fun running around and climbing up on the lifeguard stands. The running kept them warm. 



It was about time for Kyle to come back in so we headed back over to transition to watch for him to come in off the bike. 

THERE HE IS!



Then he hopped off the bike and went out for the last run leg. 


Great finish and he really enjoyed it. His times:
First run: 24:16
T1: 0:35
Bike: 45:43
T2: 0:34
Run: 21:56

Total time of 1:33:02



Kyle had wonderful weather, where as for mine the next day was rainy yucky. We ran this last year and I was excited to partake again. It's a great cause and I had a wonderful visit with my friend Sarah. On par with God's rain on our last annual events, we ran our 5K visiting in the rain. This wasn't a timed event although they did have a timer going. We were not paying attention to that at all as it was pretty slow. Sarah is a fast runner and my goal was to keep up with her but she is going through a move and hadn't been running as usual so it worked out perfectly to visit and catch up. According to my watch we ran the 3.32 miles in just under 34 minutes. 



Duluth September 20-22

We took our last trip up to Duluth end of September for our nanny's wedding. Well she's not our nanny anymore but we have known her since Isaac was 3 months old and have loved having her in our life as our family has grown and grown. She was even here the night Thomas was born :-) 

We drove up Friday evening and arrived late, but our room was right off the pool, LITERALLY. The main door came in off the hallway then there was a door on the other side of our suite that led right to where Isaac is standing. Since everyone had napped on the way up and there was loud noise from the pool there was no way we were getting them to sleep early so we went for a late night swim. Well it was about 8 or 9. I think the pool closed at 10 and then there was and adult only swim time from 10-11. Anyway it was a blessing and a curse being right there. Good thing was it was easy to get to the pool and not a long walk like other times we're at a hotel, so that was a plus. Emily stopped in to say hi to everyone. Most everyone in the pool was there for her wedding the next day. 



Saturday morning we got up and had breakfast at the hotel then walked around Duluth. It was raining... which is the theme to all the LAST things we'll be doing. Hey, I'm telling you it was God crying with us. Not that he was super sad but I took it more as his blessing that it's okay to be sad and we are moving on in our adventure in life. 






It really was a pretty crummy day. Up to this point it wasn't really raining on us hard so we took a walk out to the light house.









On the walk back in from the lighthouse it did start to rain. Then start to pour so we rushed as fast as we could over to Grandma's to have lunch. It was raining really hard when we got there. 

While we waited the half-hour for a table the kids enjoyed the motorcycle ride. 




We ate lunch then headed back to the hotel to get ready for the wedding. We decided to drive to the ceremony instead of taking the shuttle in hopes to get Thomas to nap in the van. He did finally nap but we had to drive and drive around and he finally fell asleep about 15 minutes before we needed to be there. Her ceremony was out at her childhood home. An attempt at a photo of the kids all dressed nicely. The rain had stopped and was holding off for the most part. 



Mary no so happy... not sure why maybe tired of waiting. They did have a good time though. 






It did sprinkle a little on us during the ceremony and everyone whipped out their umbrella's but it didn't last long. After that we went back to the hotel to catch the shuttle to the reception. It wasn't too far from the hotel. We got to ride a school bus which Thomas LOVED!

We found a seat and hung out


An hour or so later they announced there was a seating chart so we had to move, feeling bad the table we were at was somewhat a mess. But it was fine. The electricity went out in the entire building for a time and it was a little worrisome for people but no big deal. Eventually they restored it and the party carried on. We didn't bring Thomas's stroller and quickly realized we wish we had cuz we had no way of really containing him. Kyle ended up walking back to the hotel during the power outage, it was a 15 minute walk. I think he was back before it even came back on so he didn't miss much. The girls had fun dancing with Emily. Emma was so cute and was asking "Emily can sit with us, I'll save a seat for her" :-) Thomas also would holler for Emily every time he saw her and run up to her looking up at her with big smiling eyes. They had fun! So thankful we got to share in her special day. 


The next day we had breakfast again, enjoyed some swimming and more games. They had this murder mystery game Isaac, Emma, and I played. Isaac really had fun with it. It was called Mystery Murder Mansion




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